Mathematica DeMYSTiFied 1st Edition

First let me say that I didn't read the section on Fractals. I have no interest in Fractals, and it seems like a random subject to make the topic of an introductory text. Had those chapters been on something I could actually use, like data analysis or statistics, I'd probably have given the book 5 stars.The book is good for its intended purpose: A quick introduction to get you up to speed on Mathematica (which turns out to be pretty easy if you are already familiar with any kind of procedural programming language, though the book does not assume that you are). The book explains some of the quirky basics very well (like the difference between curly braces, brackets, and double brackets), talks about good programming practices (which you will already have, or ignore, if you are a programmer), and how to best use the User Interface for speed and accuracy (e.g., mouse-driven menus versus keyboard shortcuts, versus typing something manually).Once you've read this book, you will be able to start writing simple Mathematica programs. As an aside, unfortunately you will also then find out just how awful Mathematica's "Help" material is (largely devoid of complex real-world examples that allow you to see how a function would be used in any but the most simplistic context). But, that's Wolfram's fault, not the author's.You will shortly need to know a lot more than this book provides, but that's hardly a criticism of an introductory text. It definitely demystifies Mathematica.

I have only worked through the first chapter so far, but it is already clear that this is simply an ideal tutorial for a newbie in Mathematica. I was looking for a gentle introduction that would take me from the very earliest steps, housekeeping details, proper way to enter equations, and on up. Jim Hoste, the author, proves himself a highly gifted teacher and writer. Have been practicing all the book's steps in conjunction with Mathematica 9. Although the book was written with version 7 in mind, I have not hit a single instruction in this book that did not work perfectly in version 9. So I suspect that even if you have version 10, which just came out, this book will continue to be a seamless resource for all the basics.For such a vast system as Mathematica, the book does not pretend to cover everything. To reinforce and extend the lessons in his book, Hoste guides the reader to essential, free resources on the Mathematica website. Highest kudos to the folks at Mathematica! The tutorials and help-pages are presented concisely, with flawless lucidity, in jargon-free language, and in small chunks so as not to exhaust the user. The quality of the explanations is at the same high level as in the present textbook. The book will give you a solid and extensive foundation; the website--or more advanced texts--will then take you even further.

The official Mathematica documentation is prolific beyond belief, so I appreciated finding this book which takes you on a whirlwind tour of the program. Simple aspects are covered pretty well. As more esoteric fields are entered, the breadth of coverage starts to shrink, where a tiny little chapter scratches the surface of some vast subject. But I don't see that as a major fault. It will get you started and then give you an overview of what else can be done.A few problems: Kindle formatting can be hard to read, common with highly technical notation (I'm referring to layout on the page and line breaks); there are no page numbers on pages, or the table of contents, or most distressingly in the index itself. In fact the index just lists words with no hyperlinked reference OR page number, so why is it there at all?? Still you can search instead.

First let me say that this is a good introduction to Mathematica. However, as the previous reviewer noted, there are a lot of 'syntax errors with the code'. It is as if the text was 'scanned' in from another source with some OCR software. This would not normally be a problem, unless you are just starting out trying to learn mathematica, and you can't figure out why, the program does not work as advertised; when it is really you should be typing in "Units", not "United" as the text calls for.The latter section of the book is about fractals is informative and interesting. It is just that I think there are better ways to learn mathematica. Try going to the online Mathematica website.[...]Here is an awe inspiring mathematica programming course put out by the good folks at Davidson College. It is really an awesome set of lessons that will teach you everything from the flimsiest of basics to some really advanced stuff.

Upside:If you heard about Mathematica and have never used it. This is the book for you. I download the trail version and had the book by my side and went and zero to cursing in less than a 5 hrs of reading and trying out.Downside:Mathematica is a large and complex software and once start exploring it you realize quickly that this book only scratched its surface.However I guess for most of the advanced stuff you have Wolfram's free online seminars, help and mailing lists. I showed up for a free seminar and asked a few advanced queries at the end of the seminar during the Q&A and the presenters where happy to answer them and even gave me some helpful tips on how to proceed.One Line review: Great Start.. move on for more..

Mathematica is a brain-burning powerful software that makes up in power the fact that it is most user- unfriendly. Wolfram provides many online helps -- which this user needs but additional helps included in this book are also useful. I found much in this book which did help me although if a CD which contained many of these downloadable programs were included it would be even more helpful. It could be formatted like Wolfram-Alpha which gives a solution in many different categories (Plotting or Differential Equations for example) which then allows you to tailor these programs to your particular application.

Job #1 when you are writing a mathematica textbook, get the many many lines of code right!This book is full of errors in the code , eg missing brackets is a favourite, resulting in code that is at best hard to debug or at worst simply won't run. Formatting errors in the kindle version on ipad compound the frustration with what could have been a good book.Not recommended due to the multiple errors present.

Good for the interactive user, but very limited for people who wish to get into programming.

Great introduction to the tricky Mathematica programming language. Got me up and running from scratch in just a few hours. Now I just have to teach my kids....

以前読んだ日本語の解説書を基に、自己流にMathematicaを使ってきて、そこそこ使えるつもりでいた。しかし本書を読むと、１章目から知らずに損をしていたコマンドが出てきたりして、少し驚いた。入門者はもちろん、私のような自称中級者にも有益。　比較的安価で、バージョン７もカバーしているということなので、英語がそれほど苦にならなければ買いだと思う。